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Nazi ideology did not explicitly prescribe the system of camps that has become emblematic of Nazi terror, but the way the camps functioned reflected some key points in Nazi thinking. Central to Hitler's view of the world were the twin goals of expanding Germany's territory and purifying the so-called Aryan race. Camps of various kinds evolved over the twelve years of Nazi rule to further these goals. The development of the camps also reflected pragmatic considerations that changed over time. From surveying the camps, we can see how much power Hitler had to implement his plans, and when he and the rest of the Nazi leadership needed to pay attention to public opinion, both inside Germany and abroad.
The Early Targets

The first concentration camp in Germany opened in Dachau in 1933, at a time when the Nazi government was still consolidating its power. Accordingly, it focused on political prisoners—communists, social democrats, and dissidents who posed a threat to the new regime and were unpopular with most other Germans.

All of these early victims were easy targets, people whom other Germans did little or nothing to protect, and whose disappearance from the public scene they often welcomed.

Soon Nazi authorities and the police began to consign members of other groups to the new camps: homosexual men arrested as criminal offenders; Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to obey demands to cease their activities; women accused of prostitution; people labeled "asocial" because they were homeless, begged, or for some other reason did not fit into Nazi society.